Radio-controlled jets take Speedfest to a new competitive level

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Oklahoma State University’s Speedfest, a remote controlled aircraft design and flight competition, will be held Saturday, April 23, and includes for the first time jet-powered planes. Jet aircraft will be flown by advanced collegiate-level teams in the competition, including two teams of OSU students. Turbo jets take the annual competition to a new level of technology and required skills, said Andy Arena, OSU professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“These are real jets. Nobody else is competing with jet engines at the collegiate level,” said Arena, who started Speedfest in 2010. “This will be really exciting.”

The use of jet engines introduces new design challenges that will be tested at Speedfest, an event open to the public.

“The planes, which are all designed around the same engines, are more powerful with more speed,” Arena said. “Structurally, the planes have to be able to handle more aerodynamic forces and you have to make sure the heat of the engine is managed so your aircraft doesn’t catch on fire.” 

Again this year, OSU mechanical and aerospace engineering seniors are in two groups, Team Orange and Team Black, and will compete against each other and visiting universities. The two OSU groups have used very different designs for their planes.

“Our design is a little different from the other team,” said Ryan Anderson, the student chief engineer for Team Orange. “We’re doing a thrust tubeless design so the engine is at the back instead of inside the plane. So our design is a little simpler.”

“We said we wanted to make something that has really high performance and can do a lot of the cool maneuvers because the air show is a large component of the competition,” said Shawn Parsons, the student chief engineer for Team Black.

A new concept for Speedfest is the organization of the event as an airshow, where along with flight tests, teams will show off their plane’s abilities in aerobatic demonstrations that will be voted on by the audience. The event will also include, like a typical airshow, static displays of aircraft where team members talk to the public about their planes.

Along with the advanced university teams, Speedfest includes a class for high school teams who come to Stillwater from across Oklahoma to compete. The high school class, with 16 teams, will build and fly propeller-powered planes that can be modified to improve performance. A new group of four teams this year is made up of teachers being introduced to RC flight.

“We want to help teachers with RC planes so they will be more comfortable sponsoring teams at their schools,” Arena said.

The Speedfest competition begins Saturday morning at OSU’s Unmanned Aircraft Flight Station 12 miles east of Stillwater. Flights and other events go on throughout the day with awards presentations at approximately 7 p.m. Flights will alternate between the advanced teams with jet planes and high school teams flying aircraft with propellers. 

Speedfest is sponsored by Spirit Aerosystems, Boeing, American Airlines, the NASA Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the TJ Cunningham Engineering Endowment and the OSU School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Visit http://speedfest.okstate.edu/Speedfest_VI/Speedfest_VI_Event_day.html for event information including directions to the flight station.

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